News & Analysis
Top 10 innovative USBs and peripherals
Sylvie Barak
12/13/2011 7:56 PM EST
SAN FRANCISCO--The Universal Serial Bus (USB) emerged as an industry standard in the mid-1990s, to standardize the connection of computer peripherals to the PC, performing a plethora of functions from serving as a storage device, to a power supply and a communication interface.
The port has since become ubiquitous on almost every consumer electronic device, from smartphones to PCs, TVs to game consoles, disk drives to tablets, cameras and much more besides.
Around two billion USB devices are sold every year according to the USB Implementers Forum, and with each subsequent generation of the standard improving transmission speeds significantly, the USB could even be called the most successful interface in the history of personal computing thus far.
Personal computing, however, as the name suggests, is an intensely personal thing, and thus USB too has adapted itself to appeal to consumer whims and preferences.
The following list takes a look at some of the more innovative, original and flamboyant USBs and USB peripherals, ranging from the secure and practical right through to the gimmicky and flamboyant.
Next: Cryptically secure USB
The port has since become ubiquitous on almost every consumer electronic device, from smartphones to PCs, TVs to game consoles, disk drives to tablets, cameras and much more besides.
Around two billion USB devices are sold every year according to the USB Implementers Forum, and with each subsequent generation of the standard improving transmission speeds significantly, the USB could even be called the most successful interface in the history of personal computing thus far.
Personal computing, however, as the name suggests, is an intensely personal thing, and thus USB too has adapted itself to appeal to consumer whims and preferences.
The following list takes a look at some of the more innovative, original and flamboyant USBs and USB peripherals, ranging from the secure and practical right through to the gimmicky and flamboyant.
Next: Cryptically secure USB
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eewiz
12/14/2011 1:15 AM EST
Here is a better list :)
http://techcrunch.com/search/usb+drive
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SylvieBarak
12/14/2011 2:00 AM EST
I fail to see how an index search on Tech Crunch is a better top 10 list, eewiz, but whatever floats your boat! :)
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eewiz
12/14/2011 3:44 AM EST
did u check the list? I can see more innovative usb devices on that list.
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ManasK.RayChaudhuri
12/15/2011 10:38 AM EST
Which list do you mean?I would like to have a look very much.
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CaptainSeriatim
12/16/2011 2:36 PM EST
By that logic, here is a much better list still :)
https://www.google.com/search?q=USB+drive
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SylvieBarak
12/16/2011 6:29 PM EST
heh heh. yep. +1 to that, Captain!
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docdivakar
12/28/2011 6:07 PM EST
I like your list Sylvie!
BTW, I didn't see any USB-3.0 gadgets?
Windows 8.0 supports USB-3.0!
MP Divakar
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vrheaume
12/14/2011 3:31 PM EST
Does the "self destruction circuitry" in the IronKey involves pyrotechnics? That would be awesome :D
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SylvieBarak
12/14/2011 5:27 PM EST
That would be awesome. A little mini explosion. I'd buy one just to use at parties...
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docdivakar
12/28/2011 6:02 PM EST
Talk about an 'in your face poof!'...
MP Divakar
PS: it is quite easy to implement a squib that pops a small explosive-laden capsule in the USB. I have used something like that for activating an electrically-fired spinning mass gyroscope.
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sharps_eng
12/14/2011 6:56 PM EST
I am impressed that the global giants always leave room for the little guys to generate accessories where no accessories are needed! The design iconry gets so fractured, because no-one can make anything that looks too much like another's, while copying or hinting at the Big Guys' styles.
Design students are praised for 'new' for innovation, originality; not primarily for collaborative, organized socially beneficial thinking. For instance would it help to have a 'plain' accessory style equivalent to the 'jeans-and-T-shirt' , accessible to any manufacturer, not criticised by journos, so startups who have technical content can minimise their packaging costs?
They don't need a 'look' simply to disguise the fact that they have no innovative content.
Of course it's nice to have style as well but it does cost money, and can come later.
'Iconry?'
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Luis Sanchez
12/15/2011 4:46 PM EST
I personally liked the IUM. It’s pretty innovative. It must be handy when exchanging data from one computer to another. But… does this mean the Wifi connection with the hotspot must be dropped before using this?
And talking about concrete USB drives, how about USB drives in concrete? Check out this link which talks about precisely that.
http://datenform.de/blog/dead-drops-preview/
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SylvieBarak
12/15/2011 8:24 PM EST
Dude... you're brave enough to slot your device into that thing?! seriously?! Talk about an easy way to compromise your data! ;)
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Sanjib.Acharya
12/18/2011 9:32 AM EST
I personally liked IronKey drive. But would be interested to know the price of the pico USB storage...32GB in that size!
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prabhakar_deosthali
12/21/2011 7:06 AM EST
With all these lovely variations, how come no one has come up with a stack able USB, USB storage that can be connected back to back like battery cells to increase the total capacity?
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kinnar
12/27/2011 2:24 PM EST
Technically it is possible and it is very easy to be implemented as well,as USB by its definition can be daisy chained upto 127 no of devices. Thats what is done in the USB hubs.
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pixies
1/3/2012 5:57 PM EST
This is a good idea. You can also piece together several USBs into a USB Transformer, and brand name it USBot :) and people will feel compelled to buy the whole set, and later make movies about it.
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Robotics Developer
12/26/2011 8:56 PM EST
The best innovation that I could think of for a USB device is faster data transfers and instant load/unload. I would really like to see a device that you could plug in pull data off and then unplug without needing to tell it to disconnect. I am sure that the causes are valid but still, wouldn't be really innovative to speed up the whole process?
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kinnar
12/27/2011 2:25 PM EST
It is very good collection of different USBs, some are very extraordinary and some devices have become most used as well, USB devices for the computers have become like an ornament for a lady.
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hm
12/29/2011 12:06 PM EST
USB 3.0 will add many more innovative gadgets to this list.
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ReneCardenas
12/31/2011 4:22 PM EST
Second that HM, I can see lots of video data rate uses for security and video portability.
Can you say cheese for your mug ? ;-)
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Duane Benson
12/30/2011 4:41 PM EST
I'm surprised that at least some level of security isn't present on all flash drives. The Cryptek is pretty spendy. Certainly it appears to deliver serious security, but at a cost that puts it out of the market for most people. Lighter weight encryption would do for the majority of people that just need to be safe from the accidental loss of a driver rather than from a targeted theft.
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